Saturday, February 12, 2011

We had an incredible experience at the Michael Malm Workshop at the Scottsdale Artists School. Mike was very well organized and he has such a laid back personality. I learned some good stuff about lighting the portrait to achieve drama and also some nuts and bolts stuff about painting that I knew already but needed to have reinforced.
Here is a picture of the paintings I completed in the workshop, which was full due to the excellent reputation Mike has earned as an artist/teacher. Keep in mind that all paintings were completed in a three hour period or less, except no. 5, which was completed in about five hours. Although some of the students allowed Mike to work on their paintings I chose to keep mine in "my own hand" instead of making it a joint effort. However, Mike was able to offer insight into what to do with specific issues I raised, so I feel I did get a lot out of this workshop.
Click on the picture to enlarge and view my notes.

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

My friend Ruth Ann captured this photo of me hurriedly packing up my painting equipment (I was done with the painting), as a herd of javelina approaches. They don't see too well and I was a little worried about what they were going to do. These critters, who look like miniature wild boars, don't see too well and I guess they were just trying to figure out what I was doing in their neighborhood.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

I am teaching two classes for Prizm Creative Community of Toledo in February at the Way Public Library, 101 East Indiana Ave., Perrysburg, Ohio. The class is "Impressionistic Still Life in Oils" and runs from 9-4:00 PM Saturday, Feb. 19 and is repeated on Monday, Feb. 21. Contact Annette Jensen at prizm@bex.net to register. The class is $30 for members and $40 for non-members. We will complete a painting from life or I have decided to print some photos for the people who absolutely can't get into painting from life. BUT we will all be painting the same thing-- a piece I am calling Classic Apple Pie, featuring a rolling pin, some Gold Medal flour, apples etc. I did one a few years ago that I absolutely loved and I want to paint a different version, along with everyone else.

Here is the first version... the one for class will be a bit simpler....

I am taking a five day portrait workshop with Michael Malm this week. He is a great teacher and so far I have learned that I need to watch the temperature in my shadows and to pay more attention to my edges. The class is full! Mike says there are four main things to consider when painting from life.
1) The shapes
2) The values
3) The edges
4) The color

The first day we all worked from the same photograph. Here is what I came up with., Everyone did pretty well with that exercise.